Brief - The Hustle

Roam Research could be the future of note-taking and knowledge management

Written by Trung T. Phan | Sep 14, 2020 8:00:28 AM

Photo via: Thomas Frank / YouTube

Ever forget who the 4th Beatle is? Well, there’s an app for that.

Note-taking and productivity startups have been on a fundraising tear in  recent months. In April, Notion raised $50m ($2B valuation) and, in August, Coda pulled in $80m ($636m valuation). 

Now Roam Research has joined the pack — raising a $9m seed round at a $200m valuation, The Information reports.

Founded by Conor White-Sullivan and Joshua Brown, the 11-person note-taking startup launched only last fall.

Their secret sauce? Bi-directional linking

That lets you seamlessly connect different notes and ideas together in a network.

White-Sullivan tells The Information that this structure fits the “brain better than [files, folders, and Word documents.]”

Past Trends lecturer Nat Eliason says Roam is superior to other note-taking apps because of how easy it is to create links and pages — plus your notes aren’t all individually siloed away.

The startup is already profitable   

And many of its subscribers are power users that happily share templates and best practices on Twitter with the hashtag #RoamCult. 

The idea for Roam Research was rejected 5x by startup accelerator Y Combinator. But White-Sullivan kept grinding.

As for the 4th Beatle? **Checks Roam notes**… good ol’ George Harrison.